JOHN HAY WHITNEY DIES AT 77

JOHN HAY WHITNEY DIES AT 77; PUBLISHER LED IN MANY FIELDS

Published: February 9, 1982

John Hay Whitney, master of one of the great American fortunes and a pace-setting leader in a kaleidoscope of fields, died yesterday in North Shore Hospital, Manhasset, L.I., after a long illness. He was 77 years old.

A friend once said that for Mr. Whitney ''money has three purposes: to be invested wisely, to do good with and to live well off.'' Sportsman, investor, publisher, philanthropist, political mover and ambassador, he hated to lose at anything, from polo to racing to golf to bridge to investing. Varied Business Interests

Mr. Whitney's business interests were diverse. Through his Whitney Communications Corporat ion, he had significant interests, at one timeor another, i n Parade, a Sunday newspaper supplement; Interior Design, a tra de magazine; Art in America magazine; the International Herald Tribun e Company; 25 small newspapers, five television stationsand six radio stations.

He had one great disappointment -his inability to save The New York Herald Tribune, which he took over as editor in chief and publisher in 1961. E. J. Kahn Jr., his biographer, said the paper had ''meant the most to him of any of his enterprises,'' and Whitney Communications poured nearly $40 million into the effort.

Jock Whitney - the nickname dates from childhood - delighted in savoring the deluxe things in life, and he enjoyed great wealth; estimates early in 1982 put his fortune through inheritance and his own efforts at more than $200 million. Earned $65 a Month as Clerk In his first full-time job, Mr. Whitney received $65 a month in 1929 as a clerk and worked his way up to $50 a week for the banking house of Lee, Higginson & Company, as Mr. Kahn described it in ''Jock: The Life and Times of John Hay Whitney.'' But the young clerk was also an early investor in Aviation Corporation of America, which evolved into Pan American World Airways.

He founded J. H. Whitney & Company in 1946 as a venture capital company, and its first major investment of $1.25 million in the Spencer Chemical Company doubled in a year.

Also in 1946, Mr. Whitney started the John Hay Whitney Foundation, and he long contributed about $1 million a year to it. The foundation emphasizes help for ''those groups that experience racial, gender or economic discrimination'' to seek educational, social and economic changes in their communities. Mr. Whitney held out a vision of friends and neighbors working on immediate problems rather than grandiose social change.

Mr. Whitney was a solidly built man who stood 6 feet 1 inch. His ruddy face was generally set in seriousness, an appearance accentuated by his eyeglasses. He was an amiable companion nonetheless, but with a limited fund of small talk. His friendships included horse trainers and jockeys, professional men and men of public affairs, artists and fellow millionaires.

In conversation Mr. Whitney was direct and to the point, a trait that startled some diplomats w hen he was Amba ssador to Britain from 1957 to 1961. He had taken the post with some misgivings, yielding inthe end to a request from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Friend of Eisenhower

Mr. Whitney was a frequent bridge and golfing partner of General Eisenhower, and a substantial contributor to the general's Presidential campaigns. He spent about $100,000 a year of his own money to maintain the social side of his diplomatic life.

Mr. Whitney made his Manhattan home in a duplex on Beekman Place in recent years, closing a town house on East 63d Street while subway construction was going on underneath.

He also maintained a 500-acre estate and mansion, Greentree, in Manhasset; a spacious summer house on Fishers Island, off New London, Conn.; a 12-room place at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for occupancy during the August race meeting there; a 15-room hideaway in the heart of 19,000 acres of bird country and cornfields at Greenwood, Ga.; a modest golf cottage at Augusta, Ga., and a flat in London. Owned Stables With Sister

He could also bunk at Greentree Stables, near Lexington, Ky., a 1,000-acre horse farm whose ownership he shared with his sister, the late Joan Whitney Payson, who was once the principal owner of the New York Mets baseball team.

What really dazzled visitors to the 63d Street town house was Mr. Whitney's art display. More than 55 items from his collection, among the finest in private hands, dotted the walls. These included two Rembrandts, two Michelangelos, three Picassos and a number of works by Vuillard, Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Pissarro and Braque.

In addition, there was a sizable collection of Matisses, Mr. Whitney's favorite modern artist, whose pictures traveled with him from house to house.

Mr. Whitney was regarded by his associates as a thoughtful person, not given to vulgar display or to flaunting his position. Known as a 'Team Player'

''I've never known Jock to throw his weight around,'' a close associate once remarked. ''He's a team player. He's usually a quiet member of a board. When he has suggestions, they're usually good ones; I've never known him to put the Whitney interests above the company's.''